Week 6

This week we met with a representative of the German Consulate in Boston, Rolf Schuette. He discussed the various ways in which Germany's identity has changed since the Holocaust. One aspect of this is how people who were killed in the Holocaust are now remembered in Germany. For example, Schuette said that engraved cobble stones are now placed in front of the home of the late Jews who used to live there that listed the name of the homeowner so people walking by will always be reminded of who once lived there. 

Before class we were asked to watch another of Schuette's lectures given in Germany. That lecture and the one that my class attended were very much the same although some statisticts had changed. One of the statistics was that of the amound of Neo-Nazi activity in West Germany. This statistic had risen ever so slightly and I asked the speaker if he could tell us anything more about this kind of activity and whether or not it should be a concern. Unfortunately he did not have much information because his primary focus was very much on the survivors and the Jewish community instead of the perpetrators. He did however suggest that much of the anti-semitism from these groups were geared toward Turkish Immigrants. I was very interested to learn that he was asked to give an opening speech at Gay Pride and that he was openly gay himself which made me soften to his abrupt and evasive nature a bit more.